Lord of the Rings

Nah, Radagast isn't horny enough to be Merlin. At the very least, I don't see Radagast offering to teach magic to a woman in the hopes of getting her to sleep with him.

Now, planting socks and buttons in the ground so that they'll grow into sock/button trees ...

Speaking of trees,Merlin ends up getting trapped in a tree,by the lady of the lake no less

A brief Gollum teaser. Doesn't show much new other than the general look pretty much being stealthy fantasy allá Styx but in Middle-Earth. The brief snippet of him running from giant spiders would maybe hint that this is before Gollum strikes his bargain with Shelob.

A Gollum game in which he sits in a cave, paddles around a pool, catches fish, and occasionally strangles an unaware orc would probably make for a tough sales pitch.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 25th 2021 at 8:19:09 AM

That's Hobbit-era Gollum back in the Misty Mountains days, though. This is pretty clearly him in the Mordor days, in which he does at least explore the dark depths of Mordor extensively (this is why Frodo and Sam pick him to be their guide, after all).

By the time of LOTR Gollum might know Mordor better than any other mortal creature (as even Sauron's forces don't actually go in Shelob's regions, which Gollum does) so I imagine we'll be getting him sneaking around, strangling Orcs, and striking his famous bargain with Shelob.

I think it looks great, a stealth game starring Golum is the perfect genre of game applied to the perfect character for the role.

As long as they don't upgrade Gollum to an action character. It's a common trap stealth games fall into (see Thief), and Gollum is supposed to be dangerous when threatened, but not able to slowly and methodically stealth-kill his way across an area.

Gollum is a stick-thin, malnourished, insane hobbit. Anyone larger than a hobbit could kill him in a blink. The only reason he stood a chance against Frodo and Sam to begin with when he attacked them on Mount Doom was because they were hungry and exhausted.

Gollum is stronger than he looks though, probably because of the unnatural stretching of his life due to the One Ring.

That would be a case of Required Secondary Powers, since something physical should be there to keep a body half a millennium past its sell by date from just dying.

Gollum does seem to have higher than average agility and stamina, and he's extremely ruthless and merciless in a fight. Gollum is a master survivalist, he's lived for 589 years, older than any Human, Hobbit, Orc, or Dwarf, and he's spent much of that time hunting and cannibalizing other people for sustenance.

Tolkien always says not to underestimate Hobbits and well, Gollum is peak Hobbit. Gollum takes everything strong about Hobbits: their ingenuity, their adaptability, their survivability, and their ability to go unseen and unnoticed, and takes all of those traits to their logical conclusion, on top of being merciless in combat.

Also, he can see in the dark, can't he?

Orcs probably have lived longer. The morgul captains mention independently raiding of their own accord without a master, something that hasn't happened for a few centuries.

Doing a bit of math, we know that Bolg from The Hobbit was at least 142 years old when he died in the Battle of Five Armies.

So Orcs are at least Long-Lived if not immortal like Elves.

Edited by M84 on Mar 27th 2021 at 3:56:59 AM

Though I would think that very few orcs tend to live tremendously long lives what with fighting and war apparently being a huge part of their culture and Sauron not seeming like he'd do more than the bare minimum of social support to keep them a functional force.

Which of course means that any Orc that does reach triple digits is probably a badass.

Orcs are supposed to be corrupted Elves, IIRC. (At least by LOTR-era writing canon, probably not while writing The Hobbit.)

Tolkien went back and forth on their origin. Although he did state the early orcs were corrupted Maiar that took orc forms. So it's possibly long lived ones are lesser Maiar.

I think that's a movie thing and not a canon book thing though.

Ultimately, Tolkien never reached a satisfactory answer as to what Orcs are. Hence why I just point to the minimum age of Bolg as proof that Orcs can be Long-Lived.

Edited by M84 on Mar 26th 2021 at 10:19:19 PM

It's canon to the published Silmarillion but Tolkien changed his mind several times on what the hell orcs were so you can argue it's not his final intent.

I'm not sure I want to play a video game starring an insane cannibal who is addicted to a magic artifact of doom. I mean, it's rumored that Gollum ate babies in the woodsman settlements near Mirkwood.

That actually sounds like a incredible pitch.

Sign me the fuck up.

Edited by Gaon on Mar 26th 2021 at 12:37:08 PM

He's also about 3'6" and mostly naked, and he can never actually get said magical artifact of doom. Change your mind any?

Not one bit, no.